Thor

My reactions to this movie changed as I gained distance from it.

As the credits were rolling, I loved it. Grand and cheesy and pompous and working with a broad brush at every level--from characterization to plotting to special effects--its tone felt appropriate to its subject matter. The Thor comics were among the first I read, and I've been a fan of the character since I was very young.

As we were walking out of the theater and others were noting points at which the film dragged for them, my analytical self started coming online again. What had seemed fine for a broad play began to feel inadequate for a movie that could have featured more motivation for Thor to fall for Natalie Portman's entirely disposable character, better special effects, and so on.

Hours later, I had to avoid thinking too hard about it lest I see only those holes. If I have to hold it up to the same scale I would use to assess a more serious work, it will fail, fail badly.

In the end, though, I come back to this: As when in LA Story, Steve Martin's weatherman character says, "A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true," I will always give my heart to a good but seriously flawed superhero movie like Thor that tells stories of heroism and nobility and struggle and sacrifice that may not be true but that are what the little boy inside me wishes were true.

I want to believe we can all rise to noble heights.

I want to believe we can unite with a small group of friends to overcome incredible odds and carry the day.

I want to believe we can overcome our own limitations and become greater versions of ourselves.

I know that those things rarely happen, that people often do suck, as Kyle likes to note, but I don't care.

I want to believe we can all, each of us, be better, be more, be greater.

Any time a movie reminds me to nurture that small romantic flame, I will forgive it many sins and ultimately like it, as I did Thor.